1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuous processing of a thin planar semiconductor substrate, in particular to an open continuous diffusion furnace as well as a method of operating the same for the processing and production of semiconductor devices, in particular for the processing and production of solar cells.
2. Background of the Invention
Known solar cell fabrication processes such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,389 using a liquid based diffusion source previously applied to a semiconductor substrate make use of open conveyor belt furnaces. On the other hand vertical or horizontal closed quartz tube furnaces are typically used for diffusion from gaseous sources in the batch manufacture of semiconductor devices as described, for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,088 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,156. Batch manufacture is slow because of the set-up times between each batch. Attempts have been made to achieve continuous or semi-batch processing of semiconductors but all these commercially available diffusion systems yield a throughput lower than required for the future needs of the solar cell industry.